Why is SDOH important to CDC?
SDOH is one of three priority areas of Healthy People 2030.Along with health equity and health literacy, Healthy People 2030 sets data-driven national goals in five key areas of SDOH:: access and quality of health care, access and quality of education, social and community conditions, economic stability, and neighborhoods and built environment. Examples of SDOH included in Healthy People 2030 include safe housing, transportation, neighborhoods, polluted air and water, and access to nutritious food and physical health opportunities.
As the federal government’s lead public health agency, CDC has a unique role to contribute to SDOH efforts.
Why is addressing SDOH important for CDC and public health?
Addressing differences in SDOH accelerates progress toward health equity, a state in which all people have the opportunity to achieve their highest level of health. SDOH has been shown to have a greater impact on health than genetic factors or access to health services. For example, poverty is highly correlated with poor health and increased risk of premature death. SDOH is a major driver of health disparities in communities of color, including the effects of centuries of racism that are deeply rooted in society at large and create inequalities in access to a range of social and economic benefits, including housing, education, wealth, and employment. These inequities put people at increased risk for poor health outcomes.
CDC is coordinating efforts to focus resources where federal public health investments can make the most difference. For example, CDC's Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) focuses on reducing high chronic disease rates among specific racial and ethnic groups in urban, rural, and tribal communities. Since 1999, the program has worked with diverse sectors of racial and ethnic minority communities to reduce tobacco use, improve access to healthy foods, change the built environment to promote physical activity, and connect people to clinical care.
Public health activities impacting SDOH
Public health agencies can:
Convene
Bring local residents and organizations together to identify local concerns.
CDC has a long history of convening partners through national conferences, webinars, collaborative publications, and guideline development, and CDC encourages other public health organizations to act as conveners by including coalition-building and community engagement activities as requirements for some funded projects.
Integrate
Collect and use multiple data sources, including public health data, to help develop strategies to set direction. For example, public health departments can provide GIS maps of community needs and assets based on CDC PLACES data and environmental justice data.
Impact
We are leading approaches to developing policies and solutions and leveraging funding through a variety of mechanisms to implement and scale priority actions. For example, when CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced that racism is a public health threat in 2021, it reinforced the actions our community was already taking and supported many who took follow-up actions.
Contributing to big change
Collaborate with others to find and implement innovative solutions, such as the Los Angeles County Public Health Initiative. This led to the ban of menthol cigarettes.